Colorado cinema victims recount James Holmes Batman massacre

Desperate 911 calls from victims of the Colorado cinema massacre were played
to a court on Tuesday as it emerged that the suspected gunman James Holmes
had also rigged his apartment with improvised napalm.

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Holmes smiled at his legal team as he entered the courtPhoto: AP

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Veronica Moser-Sullivan was the youngest person to die in the massacre

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Victims' families and friends stand in line for the preliminary hearingsPhoto: EPA

The calls included a harrowing four-minute plea for help from a 13 year-old girl, Kaylan Bailey, who told an emergency responder that two of her cousins were shot and bleeding on the cinema floor, and that "one of them is not breathing".

With screaming in the background the hysterical teenager repeatedly said "I can't hear you" as the operator tried to instruct her on chest compressions.

The two cousins she was talking about were Veronica Moser-Sullivan, six, the youngest person to die in the massacre, and Veronica's mother Ashley Moser, who was shot three times and partially paralysed.

A total of 41 emergency calls were made from people in the cinema audience.

In the first, survivor Kevin Quinonez could not be heard because of the sound of bursts of rapid gunfire.

More than 30 shots were heard during the 27 second call as the operator desperately tried to establish where the incident was taking place.

Holmes, 25, is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 58 during a rampage at the Century 16 cinema in Aurora, Colorado on July 20 last year during a midnight screening of Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.

Holmes listened impassively as the 911 calls were played at the Arapahoe County Justice Center, 10 miles from the scene of the shooting.

FBI bomb technician Garrett Gumbinner then told the court Holmes had also booby-trapped his apartment using "improvised napalm" that he concocted using ingredients including styrofoam cups and petrol. He had placed the napalm in large jars packed with live rounds of ammunition.

Holmes had also created an elaborate system to blow up the apartment.

Outside the door he placed a stereo in a rubbish bag, which was timed to play loud music 40 minutes after he left. On top of the bag was a toy car.

Mr Gumbinner said the music was intended to attract someone who would pick up the car. Doing so would trigger a nearby remote control connected to a "pyrotechnic firing box" on top of his fridge, which would in turn trigger explosives. He said: "The apartment would have either blown up or caught fire."

Holmes had also made "improvised thermite" using iron rods, and put petrol into firework shells which were strewn on the floor. The carpet was also soaked in petrol.

The court heard that Holmes purchased more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition. That included 3,370 .223 calibre rounds for the AR-15 rifle, 2,600 for a .40 calibre pistol, and 325 rounds for a shotgun.

Dressed in a red prison jumpsuit Holmes smiled at his legal team as he entered the court. He occasionally sipped from a plastic cup of water but said nothing.

Once the preliminary hearing ends Judge William Sylvester will decide if there is sufficient cause for a full trial.

Prosecutors would then have 60 days from the time Holmes enters a plea to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Speaking outside court Tom Teves, whose son Alex, 24, was killed in the attack, said: "Basically my son came out here to go to school. He never came back. He came back in a jar. There's no way to understand this because there's no understanding it, but we want to know at least what happened."

Detective Todd Fredericksen, who interviewed many of the injured at the cinema, told the court Veronica Moser-Sullivan was shot four times.

Another of the dead, Matt McQuinn, 27, who was killed protecting his girlfriend, was shot nine times. One victim, Petra Anderson, survived despite being hit "square in the face," the detective said.

Following the shooting police found 209 live AR-15 rounds, and 15 live handgun rounds in the cinema, meaning the toll could have been even higher.